I think that I should stop writing this blog now. Something occurred to me this morning, the last day of September, as I looked at the compacted list of posts on the right. It's a smile! If I keep going into October and then into November and December, it's going to end up looking like Billy Idol doing his lip curling Cliff Richard impression! Oh well, we'll see.
Oh well, I saw, I did!
Billy Idol, here I come! It's a nice day for a white wedding! Well it would be, wouldn't it? All the snow and ice round here! Go nice with the big dress! Perhaps I should be marketing this? Better than the day job, ay?
Do you ever do something and fail? A little further on you try again, and fail again! Later you think, no, it will not beat me. I can do this! So you steel yourself and try again. Only this time, you will NOT fail! No, sir! Determination is readied in the trenches, waiting for the whistle, stubborness is in reserve, the crack bloody-minded assault troops are in place. This time, I WILL get to the end!
Well I am just coming to the end of Hammett's 'Maltese Falcon' (been unavailable here for ages) and have made up my mind. Next is Moby Dick! That's Melville not John Henry Bonham's drum solo. Although it can sometimes be difficult to get the end of that as well, especially the live version!
Now I first started to try to read Moby Dick when I was young. I got to about page 10! Some years later, more mature, more responsive to 19th century prose style, I was heavily into Dostoyevski at that point and you can't get much more 'dense' than him, I tried again. Got to about page 100! THIS time only the end will suffice! Only the epilogue will satisfy. And no cheating! Now I know the story, I know some of the symbolism and I know the end (as well as the beginning:). This must be enough to sustain me, surely? Surely, I can wade my way through endless descriptions of nautical activity and get to the bottom of what is one of the great American novels. (Not that that is much of an achievement given the class of the European achievements it has to compete with but nonetheless.....)
Now the edition here has 614 pages. I will be posting regular progress reports in the title to each blog from now on as to where I am at. So root for me, cheer me on as I approach page 240, offer encouragement and a cold drink as I enter the stadium at page 499, shout at the tops of your voices, scream, as I enter the final bend at page 578 and please boo and hiss me if I collapse, exhausted, at page 367. Only success will be enough now. Only victory. A gold medal. Moby Dick. Conquered! Just call me Ahab, except this will NOT consume or destroy me! I will rise, proud, unbroken and Moby will lie vanquished, forever a conquered and insignificant whale! I will win! I am a penguin!
Hell, I'm useless at everything else, leave me my small makeweights!
Came across some lovely news earlier. Tarnished a little by what's gone on before (see previous blogs about self destruction) but someone got a plum job today and nobody deserves it more, nor is better suited. MG is crowing that: "It's nice to know my initial assessment all those years ago, when the person was hiding all kinds of stuff under a bushel, wasn't wrong. Just such a shame it took so long! Partly my fault, maybe my departure should have been delayed a little longer but it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference. Too many issues!"
I think he's just pleased that something good has come out of all that pain.
